Female connectors



April 28, 1970 R. 1 MEYLEMANS ETAL 3,509,519

FEMALE CONNECTORS Filed Jan. 10. 1968 5 Sl'neecs-Sheecl 1 FIG 1 Il i Yn 1o 5 3 K10 III FIG 2 TTO/Q/VEY April 28, 1970 R. L. MEYLEMANS ET AL 3,509,519

FEMALE CONNECTORS FIG 3 April 28, 1970 R. l.. MEYLEMANS ETAYL 3,509,519

FEMALE cbNNEcToRs Filed Jan. 10, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG 5 FIG 6 14 l V FIG 4 1e i, v 13 I *g L III United States Patent O M 3,509,519 FEMALE CONNECTORS Ren Leon Meylemans, Mechelen, Franois Jeanne Charles Leyssens, Borgerhout, and Ren Florent Nys, Hove, Belgium, assignors to International Standard Electric Corporation, New York Filed Jan. 10, 1968, Ser. No. 696,831 Claims priority, application Belgium, Jan. 13, 1967,

1m. c1. Ho1r13/18, 33/76 U.S. Cl. 339-176 9 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a female connector including a plurality of plug-in contacts insulated by the connector housing, said contacts being associated with contact pressure determining springs, and locking means to lock said contacts in said housing.

Such a female connector is known from the U.S. Patent 3,268,850 (J. Bernutz 73).

An object of the present invention is to provide a female connector of the above type, which offers a double number of connection possibilities with respect to the above known connector for a comparable size.

The invention is based on the insight that the known female connector incorporates double spring contacts that ensure a good contact reliability in the most adverse cases, i.e. when very frequent removals of the male connector thereto associated are foreseen. In applications where such removals of the male part are not so frequent, it is no longer essential to have double contacts to ensure a satisfactory contact reliability. For the latter applications a female connector with simple contacts and of suitable design may be reliable as well.

The present female connector is characterized by the fact, that each of said pressure determining springs is mechanically associated with a pair of contacts while keeping them electrically separate.

According to another aspect of the invention, a female connector including a plurality of plug-in contacts insulated by the connector housing, and locking means to lock said contacts in said housing, is characterized by the fact, that said housing is constituted by a contact support and a cap respectively carrying first and second engaging elements, said rst engaging elements being arranged to engage and lock with the corresponding second elements when said cap is pressed on said contact support, and that said locking means are constituted by the upper part of said cap which prevents the shifting of said `contacts out from :said housing while enabling the insertion of a male connector.

The above mentioned and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood by referring to the following description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompaning drawings in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively represent an upper and a 3,509,519 Patented Apr. 28, 1970 ICC side view of a female connector in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the axis IIIIII of FIGS. 2 and 4;

FIG. 4 represents an upper plan view of a part of the insulated housing of the female connector of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 5 and 6 respectively show a front and a side view of a plug-in contact of the connector of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIGS. l to 6 and principally to FIGS. l to 3, the female connector shown therein comprises an insulating housing 1, constituted by a contact support 3 and a cap 2, and a plurality of plug-in spring contacts 6. Hereby it should be noted that FIG. 4 shows an upper plan View of a part of support 3. The cap 2 is provided with four holes 4 and one elastic stud 10, on each of its longitudinal sides and at the bottom of each of its two end parts respectively. These holes 4 and studs 10 engage withcorresponding elastic studs 7 and recesses 5 of support 3, when cap 2 is pressed thereon, thus performing the locking of the two constituent pieces 2 and 3 of housing 1 with respect to each other. The upper part of cap 2 is provided with a slot 11 which enables the insertion of an appropriate male connector (not shown) in housing 1. This male connector may for instance be constituted by the edge part of a printed circuit board carrying on each side thereof a set of parallel conductors arranged to tit with the respective contacts 6 of the female connector. The contacts 6 are at and U- shaped, each one having a long leg protruding from the bottom of support 3 through a corresponding hole 12, and a short leg of which the free end is housed in a corresponding recess 13 of support 3. The short leg of each contact 6 constitutes its contacting member, whereas the part of the long leg thereof protruding from housing 1 constitutes its connection tail, which may receive a suitable conductor (not shown). The contacts 6 are arranged in the support 3 in two parallel rows, each contact 6 of one row having a homologue contact in the other row. Each pair of homologue contacts 6 is associated with a corresponding contact pressure determining spring 8, which is flat and substantially U-shaped. Each pressure spring 8 is in the same plane with its associated pair of contacts 6, this plane being perpendicular to the two parallel rows of contacts. The two legs of a spring 8 project in the curved concave parts of its associated pair of contacts 6 and they are kept electrically insulated therefrom by means of two insulating ribbons 9, respectively extending through the whole length of the two contact rows. Each of the pressure springs 8 carries a projection 15, which ts in a corresponding hole 14 at the bottom side of support 3. The upper part of cap 2 partially covers the convex parts of contacts 6 of both rows, so that it prevents their shifting in the plug-out direction. The projecting parts of the long legs of contacts 6 are narrower than the remaining contact parts, so that the corners 17 thereof (FIG. 5), which are supported by the bottom part of support 3, prevent the exertion of a high pressure on the insulating ribbons 9 during the male connector insertions. In this way, the ribbons 9 are protected against wearing and tearing of their parts pressed by the pressure springs 8 on the curved parts of contacts 6. Each of the contacts 6 is provided with a longitudinal slot 16 (FIGS. 5 and 6) extending through the greater part of their short legs and a relatively lesser part of their long legs to ensure a very good contact reliability, by increasing the relative elasticity of the contacting parts situated at the one and the other side of slot 16. The above slot 16 is narrower than the pressure spring thickness in order to avoid excessive constraints on the insulating ribbons 9.

While the principles of the invention have been described above in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. An electrical connector for -mating with a printed circuit board comprising:

a connector housing formed of insulating material;

a plurality of Ipairs of plug-in spring contacts insulated by said housing and mounted therein, each of said contacts being substantially U-shaped and having a short leg constituting contacting member and a long leg having a free-ended part which protrudes from said housing to form a connection terminal, the short legs of each of said pairs of contacts being adjacent to and facing each other; and

spring means coupled to said pair of contacts and mounted in said housing, said spring means being substantially U-shaped with one of the legs of each of the spring means projecting between the legs of each of said pairs of contacts, keeping said contacts electrically separated.

2. An electrical connector in accordance with claim 1 wherein the free ends of said short legs of said contacts are engaged in a recess of said housing.

3. An electrical connector in accordance with claim 1 wherein said connector housing is formed of a cap portion which partially covers said contacts at the junction of the legs of said contacts for locking said contacts in said housing.

4. An electrical connector in accordance with claim 1 wherein the short legs of said contacts are slotted for a portion of their length.

5. An electrical connector in accordance with claim 4 wherein the slotted portions of said contacts are narrower than the width of said associated spring means.

6. An electrical connector in accordance with claim 5 wherein said slot is closed at both ends of its length.

7. An electrical connector in accordance with claim 1 wherein one of the contacts of each of said contact pairs are arranged in a rst row and the other of the pairs of said contact pairs are arranged in a second row in said housing.

8. An electrical connector assembly in accordance with claim 1 wherein each of said contacts are insulated from its respective spring means by means of an insulaitng ribbon.

9. An electrical connector assembly in accordance with claim 8 wherein said insulating ribbon extends along the length of said connector housing and is common to all of the contacts of one of said rows.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,858,515 10/ 1958 Thunander et al. 2,935,725 5/1960 Fox. 3,268,850 8/1966 BernutZ. 3,286,326 11/ 1966 Klotz 339-259 X 3,329,926 7/ 1967 Aksu et al. 3,421,136 l/1969 Bowley et al.

DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner P. C. KANNAN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

